Divisional Round Sunday Recap: Patriots handle Texans, Rams outlast Bears in OT
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2026
⏱️ 60 minutes
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Summary
And then there were four. The Conference Championship games are set. Joining the Denver Broncos in the AFC are the New England Patriots after taking care of business against the Houston Texans on Sunday. On the NFC side of things, we get the third installment of Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams, with the latter winning a thriller over the Chicago Bears in overtime on Sunday night. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman recap the Divisional Round Sunday games on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Rundown (timestamps are approximate)
4:00 Rams beat Bears to advance to NFC Championship Game
37:42 Patriots cruise past Texans to AFC Championship Game
Host: Robert Mays
Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
Video Producer: Katy Duffy
Audio Producer: Michael Beller
Social Producer: Scott Krinch
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Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm Robert Mays. |
| 0:08.0 | Divisional Round weekend is officially in the books. |
| 0:11.8 | Some really fun games, not a very fun ending. |
| 0:15.3 | A phenomenal Bears season. |
| 0:17.2 | This is a game where I'm going to go back and forth a thousand different times |
| 0:21.3 | about all the little sliding doors moments and the things that could have gone differently. |
| 0:25.0 | We dug into all of that and how frustrating a game like this is, |
| 0:28.4 | but also trying to celebrate what this year was and how much fun I had |
| 0:32.9 | and how much fun we had on the show. |
| 0:34.6 | So a lot of discussion about the bears falling short to the Rams, |
| 0:38.8 | followed that up with a huge win by the New England Patriots over a Texans team that had an |
| 0:45.0 | especially ugly day, especially on offense. So we talked about that. Where we're at with C.J. Stroud, |
| 0:50.4 | what this means and how the Patriots were ultimately able to get over the hump |
| 0:55.0 | and get back to the AFC championship game. |
| 0:57.2 | So let's dig into that with me, Derek Klesson, and Dave Hellman right now. |
| 1:06.5 | Great game, tough way for it to end. |
| 1:09.1 | I guess that's what I'll say to start things off. |
| 1:11.5 | I don't even know how to begin this conversation. |
| 1:15.1 | Yeah, I mean, either. |
| 1:16.1 | It feels surreal that it's wild that the Bears got another just bat shit moment in a year that's been full of them. |
| 1:25.7 | And I don't know. |
... |
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